Well, I’ll be leaving for Cornerstone in a few hours. I probably won’t have much computer access (or extra time!) so I probably won’t write much this week.

So, Lasso the Salt accidentally recorded an album this week! We set out to record a short and simple EP/Demo but we just kept going and it’s turned out great. We made paper sleeves for it — they came back from the printer this afternoon and Joey and Erica and Josh and I spent hours and hours cutting and folding and gluing while Brach mixed and mastered. I promise to show you album art as soon as I can (I guess we didn’t take any pictures of our arts and crafts), but you can see the original picture here. Erica took it in Kolkata.

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In case you’d forgotten (I nearly had), I share a rare first name with the official Michael Jackson substitute, Joby Rogers. That means that, strangely, the traffic here today had mostly to do with Michael Jackson (God rest his soul).

I sat down to reinforce the corners of my accordion case last night, but the best material I had to work with was cheap silver duct tape. It really needed help — if I didn’t do anything, the case probably wouldn’t survive the week. Silver duct tape around all the corners looked pretty tacky, but I think I made it work.

So, um, Cornerstone is coming up in a few days. Are you coming? You should come and see the cool music I get to help make.

I thought it would be a good idea to sit down and tell you about the people I’m playing with.

I’m looking forward to playing with my favorite songsmith, Jonni Greth. You should check out this review – if you’re an old fan, you’ll appreciate the new song there.

Busker Kibbutznik changed my life†! There hasn’t been a busker show at cornerstone in four years. I’m excited that there’s a show and glad to be a part of it.

There’s no Psalters concert this year, but I’m looking forward to Theillalogicalspoon. I probably won’t play with them this year because they already have a tight arrangements of everything — they’re fresh home from a tour and the music sounds better than ever.

Come join Lasso the Salt for some serious worship that will make you think. It sure challenges me.

What do you get when you mix together Tuvan throat singing, old-school delta blues and a Tom Waits cover or two? Khadag Blue, of course. Come hear the music I learned to play the stand-up bass for.

I don’t think that there’s a web site for Ami Moss’s band The Unfortunate yet, but you can hear a couple of old recordings of songs we still play here. We’ve got a Leonard Cohen cover ready that sounds like Billie Holiday. You’ve got to come hear it.

I always love hearing Tommy Ogle play his homemade banjos. He found and restored the bass I’ve been playing and asked if I would play it with his band at cornerstone this year. We’ll see if that comes together, but I’ll sure be at the show.

I’ve got to say I feel downright spoiled to get to play so much music (The above list actually isn’t quite complete). I must sound a bit like a broken record to some of my friends, but I’ll say it again: I’m really proud of everything I’m a part of this year — really looking forward to each and every concert.

See you there!

† A friend told me that I would feel at home at some place called Jesus People. Months later, I found the Busker website and through that the JPUSA website and… the rest is history.

From the Daily Mail earlier this year: Dr Thilo Gambichler wrote in the journal BMC Dermatology: ‘The contact of the cello’s body with the scrotum would require an extremely awkward playing position.’

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In more serious news, life is good! It’s cornerstone season, so I’m playing even more lots of music than in my regular life. If you’re coming to cornerstone, come see me! I mean, not me so much, but the groups I’m with. I’m proud to be playing with these folks. I’ve been practicing with The Unfortunate (Ami Moss’s songs) all this week and, well, you just have to come see what we’re doing. Today we worked out a Leonard Cohen cover that you would swear was Billie Holiday. Come see what I mean!

Which sounds more foolish? Plan ii) Go to bed now (it’s 2:30am) and try to get up in 3-4 hours to drive alone to Kentucky, or plan iii) start driving now and get a few traffic free hours in, then find a good place to sleep for a few hours.

I don’t really trust myself to get up as early as I want to if I sleep here, but I’m pretty tired and I don’t know that I can get that many hours in before I have to stop. Yes, I know that the better choice is to go to bed at a reasonable hour and *then* get up early and drive. That was plan i).

Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, I’m headed down to Ichthus (Sorry Josh and Heidi, I failed to save the date) to worship with the psalters. Here I am with Jonny at Ichthus last year. I like this picture.

I’ve been to Philly to visit my friends and see their marvelous bike-puppet horse. Actually, I didn’t know there would be a bike-puppet, and there were lots of other neat things, but maybe none so cool as the bike-puppet horse.

I’ve been making plans to go to Lexington next week to be part of the mini Psalters tour.